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Sierra Club v. California Coastal Comm'n

Citation: 35 ELR 20105
No. No. S116081, (Cal., 05/19/2005)

The Supreme Court of California held that the California Coastal Commission's approval of a coastal development permit that straddles the coastal zone boundary conforms with the California Coastal Act of 1976. The commission considered the ways in which the proposed development outside the coastal zone would produce impacts within the coastal zone, and the ways in which the proposed development inside the coastal zone, as further conditioned by the commission to implement the Coastal Act's standards, would address those impacts. Given the commission's finding that the proposed development within the coastal zone, as conditioned, is in conformity with the Coastal Act, a denial of the permit request for that development would simply be a means of effectuating change in the portion of the project outside the coastal zone. Thus, the commission correctly declined to deny the permit request solely on the basis of the impacts within the coastal zone.